May 7 to 12 2012

I went back to the Hard Rock again this year. I went there for the first time last year. The banquet rooms are nice, the food is good and the banquet personnel are excellent. The only problem was the banquet rooms were expensive.

Last year I got a free upgrade to one of the incredible HRH suites. They are beautiful. Along with the suite came VIP check in- a VIP check in desk, and they give you a refreshment while you check in. I could have used VIP check I this year. Unfortunately they didn’t give me a free upgrade this year.

I left Minneapolis at 9:30 am and landed in LAS at 10:30 am. No rental car this year so I took the short cab ride to the HRH; literally five minutes.

The check in line was long so I left my cell number and they were supposed to text me when my room was ready. I had lunch at the Pink Taco and went to setup my equipment. Four hours later I finished setting up but hadn’t received a text. I went back to the front desk and stood in line for another twenty-five minutes before I received my room key.

Even if the room wasn’t a suite it was still nice. It had the signature red wallpaper and dark furniture. The bathroom had the standard HRH black tile and very dim lighting. Wifi was included, or should I say, paid for in the resort fee. The nice thing about being in the Paradise tower, rather than the suites tower, was it was close to the meeting room.

The seminar went well for the most part. This was my third Vegas seminar. The first seminar I had a girl in class that partied to the early morning hours and was hungover the second day of class but she was the only person that I ever had problems with. I was at the Hard Rock for the seminar last year and everything went well.

This year half of the students were about my age; 50’s. They got to bed at a reasonable hour, came to class on time and were there to learn. Unfortunately the younger students; 20’s and 30’s stayed out late, came to class late and were hungover. One guy managed to sleep (pass out) at the pool, came to class about an hour late and was hurting so bad that he couldn’t sit in a chair most of the morning.

It’s odd, the older students did not like the hard rock at all. One of them moved to another hotel because it was too noisy. This is the first year that I got complaints about the HRH, everyone has always liked the hotel. Anyway, next year we go to the Hilton.

The Hard Rock has a shuttle that goes to the strip at the top of every hour. Since it’s only a  mile walk I opted to walk to the strip every night. I’m not much of a gambler but I love to walk the strip and people watch.

You got to love the creativity of people that want to make a buck on the strip. People will dress up in costumes, stand on street corners and  passersby tip them to have their pictures taken with them. There were a lot of tall beautiful women dressed as show girls. I saw Transformers, Star Wars Storm Troopers and a guy with a beard and a doll in a baby carrier hanging from his chest ala Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover. My favorite was drunk Mickey and Minnie. When I saw Mickey he was “passed out” with empty booze bottles strewn around him near Caesar’s.

The weather in Vegas was perfect, in the nineties and low humidity so I decided that I didn’t care what I had for dinner as long as it was outside.

Monday- I had dinner at Diablo’s Bar. I had chicken enchiladas, pretty mediocre but the waitresses were drop dead gorgeous and the bar was fun.

Tuesday-  Serendipity’s at Caesar’s Palace. I had a steak, it was a small and expensive but good.

Wednesday- I had Mandarin chicken at PF Chang’s. Got to love anything at PF Changs.

Thursday- I had a burger at the Rock Bar. I sat at the rail and watched all of the tourists walk by.

Friday- It’s complicated, read below for details.

Normally I fly home on Friday but this year I decided to stay an extra night to get a chance to check out Vegas on a weekend. I got a great deal on a room for Friday night at The Rio from Easy click Travel, I paid $80 for the night.

I stayed at Rio about fourteen years ago and it appears that little has changed since then.

Check in was faster than at the Hard Rock, my room was clean and the hotel was generally well kept up. On the other hand, the furniture looked dated (but in good condition) and I had an old fashioned CRT TV in my room (like fourteen years ago). There wasn’t anything wrong with the casino area but when you compare it to the casinos along the strip it appears small and plain.

I unpacked and headed to the strip. The Rio has buses running to the strip every half hour. I was dropped off at Harrah’s.

As I walked through the Palazzo I decided to get a piece of pizza at the food court. The pizza was inedible, literally it was so bad that I could not eat more than two bites. The crust was so greasy that it broke apart when I picked it up.

It was worth getting the bad pizza at the Palazzo so I could find the Pizza Spot at Wynn’s. They had pasta and pizza by the slice. I had a slice of pepperoni and a beer.  The pizza was good but the best thing about the Pizza Spot was its patio. I overlooked a man-made water fall and pond- a little bit of outdoors on the strip.

As I ate my pizza a hen mallard flitted under the fence and onto the patio, walked up to me stuck out and opened its bill. A begging duck? I didn’t feed it so the duck faced off with a pigeon that was trying to eat a piece of bread that had fallen on the ground. The pigeon won the battle so the duck wandered back to my table. I felt sorry for the duck so I gave it several pieces of crust as a consolation prize.

My take on gambling is that I’m going to lose so when I gamble I want to lose as slow as possible hence I play penny slots. A little embarrassing, because the penny slots are the domain of the retirees but I don’t care.

I roamed the strip until I caught the 2 am bus back to the Rio.

I got up the following morning and tried to use my coupon for a free buffet breakfast. I was told that I would be charge ($25) for breakfast and it would be deducted from my bill when I checked out but they weren’t quiet sure how that would happen. I opted to grab something at the airport.

Recap

Hard Rock Hotel

This was the first year that I received complaints about the hotel. If you are younger and came to Vegas to party this is the place to be. If not, find another hotel.

Food

The best meal was either Serendipity in Caesar’s or PF Chang’s. The best bang for the buck was the Pizza Spot in Wynn’s.